Another good American on BushCo's "watch list"

After I sent around and posted Prof. Walter Murphy’s account of his experience with Bush/Cheney’s TSA, I heard back from Ms. Celestial Sojourner, who noted that she too was on the regime’s “watch list,” along with her husband.

I asked her for a full account, and she provided the following.

MCM

Like Professor Murphy, my husband, Frank Moore, fulfilled hismilitary service and was decorated for it. He was wounded in Vietnamand when he came home he had a lifelong 10 percent disability. Neither of us have any criminal record whatsoever, and we are both strong citizens of our community: Frank is a well respected andgentle medical care provider, and I have served my community in manyvolunteer capacities.

Also like Prof Murphy, Frank and I are on the “Watch List”.This doesn’t mean we aren’t allowed to travel, but it doesmean that we are harrassed when we do. It began about 4 years agowhen we were travelling to visit our grandchildren. The airportkiosk refused us boarding passes, so we had to wait in line to seethe ticket agent. The ticket agent said, “Oh, you’re on the WatchList!” We asked why. The ticket agent said, “We can’t tell youthat.” Infuriated by the new secretiveness of our govenerment, weasked how we could get off the Watch List. The ticket agent replied,“You can’t ever get off.”

In the last 4 years we have flown many times, and have neverbeen allowed a boarding pass at the kiosk. Also, we are not allowedboarding passes for our connecting flights, but must wait in linesfor ticket agents at all connections, to get passes for the nextflight. This sometimes makes us miss connections, because thereisn’t always time to wait in line for another boarding pass between flights.

We are also not allowed return trip boarding passes. Even though we buy round trip tickets we are not given the return trippasses until we present ourselves again for search and harrasament onthe way home. While we are vacationing, we have no return ticket toremind us of when we are supposed to be back at the airport.Additionally, we have missed flights because they take so longsearching our luggage, and yes, like Professor Murphy’s our luggageis ransacked.

I am am American-born little old grandmother, the decendentof 4 generations of Americans, the daughter of a WWII vet–and thisis how the NSA searches me: They look in my hair, behind my ears, andunder the lining of my hat. They feel my bosom and crotch, and whilethey are so doing they coyly say, “Can you tell us why you are on the Watch List”? Even more coy is the statement of one NSA officer,“Why do you look so nervous”? They make me take off not just myshoes but also my socks and sit down. Then they say, “Hold up yourfeet” and then, “Okay, now spread your toes!”. Yes, they lookbetween my toes, and behind my ears. What could I possibly havebetween my toes that is of any interest?

How did we get on the Watch List? I don’t know exactly, but our political background could be the cause. Both Frank and I have always been very vocal Bush critics. I have written to the WhiteHouse and asked Bush to resign. I have called my Republicansenators and demanded they stop supporting Bush’s initiatives, andcontain the damage he had done. I regularly call my Republicancongressman and demand that he produce articles of impeachmentagainst Bush/Cheney/Rice.

We have donated money to MoveOn, NormaL, The NationalDemcratic Committee and the campaigns of Gore, Edwards, and Kerry. Wehave also volunteered on the campaigns of those candidates. Allthough the spring and summer of 2000 I used my body as a billboardand covered myself from head to toe with homemade anti-Bush buttons,which I wore persistently every day, even when I drove across the country, on the way from Arizona to Florida, passing right through Texas. We paid for full page ads in our local newspaper at election time, enumerating the reasons why Bush had to be defeated.That was probably enough to do it. There was also an incidentwith an Army recruitern, which resulted in his calling my neighborsand telling them that I was “Un-American”. This happened about 4years ago–just about the time we ended up on the watch list.Our youngest child was graduating from high school, rankedfirst in her class, and the Army wanted her badly. Indeed, they tookmany of her classmates. I begged her them not to go. The Army recruiter actually went into the schools, during school hours, took those kids one at a time out of their class and tried to pressure and shame them into going. My daughter came home from school distressed, because the recruiter had told her it was unfair of her to burden her parents with the cost of her college education, and that we would be reduced to horrific poverty in our old age because of her, and thatshe should pay for her education herself with the assistence of theArmy. We reassured her this wasn’t true and told her we didn’t wantto see her in the miliatary under Shrub’s leadership. I forbade herto speak to the recruiter again.

He began calling the house, over and over–even after I toldhim he was not allowed to speak to my daughter; I told him that shewould not serve under this Commander-in-Chief, and I hung up on him.He called right back and said, “It’s really not up to you wether Ispeak to your daughter or not, it’s up to her!” I answered that thiswas my phone he was calling, my house, that she was still a minor andit was up to me who she spoke to. I told him she would never beallowed to speak to him, and to stop calling. He sarcasticallythanked me for “supporting the war effort”. I stated I didn’t supportit at all, and hung up on him again.

He called back again many times repeatedly over the course ofmany weeks. Each time I spoke with him, and told him to stop callinghim. He persisted. Our conversations became more and moreaggressive, with me finally asking him how he could do such animmoral job as to recruit innocent youth for Shrub’s illegal and immoral oil wars. He said me it was his duty, and I informed himthat his most ethical alternative to the performance of an immoralduty was to go AWOL, following the example of his president.He said the war was neither immoral nor illegal, andnecessary to protect our democracy. I told him I’d believe that itwas a necessary war “When the Drunken Shrub Twins have arrived at thefront lines, rifles in hand,” and that he should “call me back whenthey get there,” but otherwise never to call back again. He persisted, calling every few days and sometimes more than once a day.I told him that this was harrassment and demanded to speak with hiscommanding officer. He claimed to be his own commanding officer. Ilet him know I realized that was a lie, and hung up on him again.After the phone call in which I made the comment about theDrunken Shrub Twins, I went to the grocery store, and there in thecheckout line I heard from one of my neighbors that this recruiterhad called her house next. He had tried to enlist her child–andhad also mentioned me, saying he had just spoken with me and stating,“Your neighbor Celestial is Unamerican.” It was only an hour later.It took less than an hour for this man to slander me to my neighbors.I don’t know how many other neighbors he called.

So, this Army recruiter not only harrased me and my child,but als

o slandered me. I don’t know which political perspective ofmine is responsible for me being on the watch List–probably all ofthem–but that Watch List is damned Un-American.

Orwell Rolls In His Grave, featuring MCM – Buy the DVD

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